These ads actually dismiss the one big thing that the "PC vs Mac" ads address, and that is the operating system. They essentially point out the obvious, that there are cheaper laptop alternatives to MacBooks and completely ignore the operating system. Sure, I could go out and buy a cheap laptop, I actually did purchase a $900 HP laptop about two years ago. It works, but it wasn't great and is nothing compared to my MacBook Pro. In the end this is nothing more than marketing and you have to remember the target audience. Most technology savvy people will actually research their purchase rather than rely on advertisement. I researched my MacBook Pro purchase for three months, looking at reviews on both sides of the camp. So you have to ask yourself, are you going to listen to a marketing department tell you what you should buy? Or are you going to do your own research and decide for yourself what laptop best suits you.

I use both systems heavily every day. I do music for games for a living; I use my Macbook Pro for my audio work and a great Dell desktop becasue most of the tools I need are PC only. I do my productivity (MS office) on my Mac under Parallels. Both my systems run great. My PC doesn't crash daily as some would believe and my Macbook wasn't terribly expensive.

I do have a slight preference for the Mac, since on the road I can boot to either Windows or OSX and both run great. Btw, I would go so far to say as my Macbook Pro is the best Windows laptop I've ever owned. Big difference there is that I have a clean install of Windows on it, without all the extra stuff you get when you buy normal PC.

Then again I wouldn't expect a mac user to have a dedicated 10TB storage array in a closet either.

*If* you know what your doing you will not have any issues with a PC no matter what the "technical" people on here spout.

*IF* you are clueless and just expect to click a couple icons and that is the extent of your computer usage (Web, Email, document creation) – by all means get a mac and knock yourself out.

Are Macs more stable? Yes. Apple has control over every stage in their production for both hardware and Operating system. I'd say 90% of the applications your average Mac user works with are made by Apple. That means that everything works smoothly and there are less variables to deal with. It also means your options are limited. Want a new graphic card for your Mac Pro? you have 2 options. New CD/DVD burner? 1 option. Different Processor? Nope, just different clock speeds. Macs are "out of the box" machines and they work well because of it.

PCs give you so much more variety and options, but with that comes inherent issues. If you've got 100 options for motherboards along with 100 different sound cards, video cards, CD/DVD drives, PCI add-ons and processors to add to it there is a high chance of conflict. This also means there are cheaper and less than desirable options out there but also very high end components that are as good, and in many cases surpass the quality of Apple.

I've always said if I was going to get a laptop I'd buy a mac and if I was going to get a desktop it would be a PC. Laptops aren't performance machines anyway so stability and ease of use reign there. However, for pure power and performance I'll always build my own desktop to suit my needs and expand as I see fit.

Second, these ads show mishaps in the fact that windows is across such a huge spectrum of companies, where is Macs are alone with just apple. It doesn't point out that Sony is also more expensive, and so are other companies. All it shows is a way to rig it so someone has to pick Microsoft. Its like GM saying hey find one of these cars and if its cheaper than a Mercedes, we will pay for it. Well duh… but the Mercedes is going to be much worth it.

Basically if you told me I could get a $700 laptop for free, i would gladly take Microsoft's money, and post the laptop on ebay, and then buy a Mac.

"I love these comments about crashing pc’s – yeah maybe back in the Windows 95 / 98 days .. since Windows 2000+ the instance of an OS crash are slim to none. OS stability is impacted most by poorly written software / drivers."

I want to tell the author to get a netbook or blackberry. Clearly they are using a PC about as much as they use formal china. I make a frightfully large salary repairing Windows based machines and every version of Window OS there is. The graphics/marketing department uses Apple…I go by to say high every once and an while. Never to repair a machine. Never.

Some people drive a Ford, and some people drive Lexus. Both are cars but that is where the comparison stops.

barry

i'm a longtime PC Enthusiast, always building my own machines, had all kinds of flavors of Linux on numbers of cheap boxes, etc. always used Intel platform with Windows as OS on my best machine. I pre-ordered Vista Ultimate, i was pretty much their target customer.

i've got a MacBook Pro now, and i have no interest in turning back.

Windows machines are a constant battle to manage. the OS is a disaster. I am the 'family tech support' and it is just painful to constantly be putting out fires on these crappy machines…but the upside is they only cost $500

I know when the G5 was released. The poster I responded to said his model was 3 years old. The G5 first debuted in 2003 and the last revision was in October 2005. However, that final revision was on sale until late 2006 when it was replaced by the Mac Pro. Meaning the oldest G5 is only 3 years old.